The great thing about being a new blogger is that there’s no shortage of information on how to succeed as an internet entrepreneur. It’s like clockwork. How to Blog and How to Make Money Blogging blogs are everywhere and there are new ones produced everyday.
This blog even falls into those categories. So, I don’t necessarily consider it to be a bad thing. But it can definitely mislead bloggers and make them think that things are a little more simple than they really are.
There’s a problem, though.
Should new bloggers really be seeing Pat Flynn’s $40,000 monthly income reports at this point? Sure, they offer intense motivation to become an internet entrepreneur. But is it really that easy. Really?
The New Blogger Mind Trap
The first thing a new blogger wants to do is monetize his or her blog. Ads, ad space for sale, affiliate sales, blah blah blah… everyone wants to make money from their blog.
It’s almost like everything is technical and the mental aspect has nothing to do with online success. (I just said something there)
Expert bloggers teach everything they know about making money from their blogs and I definitely appreciate them for that. I do have to question, though, what level of experience is required of the reader to make the information most useful.
Can a brand new blogger “make it” by watching what the blogger gurus do? Personally, I don’t think so.
I feel that blogs like Pat Flynn’s should be read by bloggers who have already reached a certain level of understanding about being an internet entrepreneur. You have to be able to handle failure if you want to try and mimic Pat Flynn’s strategies. Because they might not work for you.
So, I’m not saying that guys like Pat aren’t great teachers. I’m saying that you need to be ready for trial and error before you follow their instructions word for word, not instant success.
If you don’t know that before stepping out on your “I can do it too” journey, you might end your blogging career before it begins.
Who Should They Follow Early On?
Well, in order to achieve anything in this cold world, you first have to believe that you can do it. Got it. We’ve gone over this before.
Last time I checked, How to Make Money blogs don’t specialize in psychology. Are they dumping information on a reader that has no foundation to stand on? Well, if the reader is brand new to blogging and entrepreneurial ways, yes.
Over the last few months, I’ve found that I get more help from encouragement than I do from lesson plans.
In other words, I’d rather you tell me that I have the ability to create the future I want than tell me how to make $500,000 a year with my blog.
Why? Because one of them depends on my performance and the other depends on someone else’s idea of what my performance should be.
The Big Money Expert Blogger Advice
When you follow the successful bloggers that love to teach you how to make money online too early in your blogging career, you set yourself up for failure, in my opinion.
They will show you what works based on their experiences. There’s nothing wrong with that. But since when does everyone have the same experiences?
Can you really duplicate someone else’s path to success? Will you have the same great opportunities that they had, when they had them?
I think not, buddy.
It just doesn’t work that way. At the very most, you can take small chunks of their tactics and apply them to your business where they fit in.
So, I seriously don’t think it’s a good idea for the new guys to try and do everything that the big dogs have done. The big dogs made mistakes and saw multiple failures before they made it big.
You need to make some mistakes of your own. Your goal as a new blogger should be to prepare for that.
The Life Coach Blogger Advice
On the other side of the success-at-blogging coin is the life coach. Everybody loves the guy who can take life’s most complex issues and break them down into easy to digest chunks of knowledge and wisdom.
I feel that these are the best bloggers to follow if you are new at blogging.
These are the guys and gals that will help you get past that first inevitable failure. It’s going to come no matter what and you need to be able to push through to the next failure.
They will teach you what it takes to keep moving forward when you’re writing for nobody (so it seems) and making absolutely no income.
They’ll show you how to enjoy your life as an internet entrepreneur and give you the courage to go at it full force instead of part-time.
These are the lessons you need if you are a new blogger. You’re not ready to hold webinars yet!
Balance Your Inspiration Sources
Don’t let the dollar signs be the motive behind your desire to be a successful blogger.
You will meet failure after failure after failure (that’s normal) and you will be crushed to the point where you believe that you can’t succeed as a blogger. You’ll probably end up quitting, not realizing that the very bloggers you were following have failed even worse and more times than you did. They just didn’t tell you about it. Or maybe they do, one out of every 25 articles.
Only go to them for a technical lesson in blogging. That’s what they specialize in.
Find out how to run a successful marketing campaign. Find out how to optimize your blog for a better reader experience.
But get your lessons and go.
Take that knowledge and mix it with the confidence and piece of mind you’ve built from the lessons learned with the life coaches.
They will teach you what you need to know to weather the storm. Things are going to get rough. If you can’t make it through those times, there isn’t a damn thing that a How to Make Money blogger can do for you.
You know what would be great? A blogger that talks about both sides: How to be a successful blogger but think positive, successful thoughts no matter what happens.
I wish I could find a blogger like that. 
Good advice. I made that mistake following ProBlogger when I first started. Darren is a good guy, but as he got more and more about money and less and less about helping people succeed. I quit when he made the better parts of his blog “pay only,” as if the little guys didn’t deserve to know the good stuff. I have a blog about earning money online, but I’m making it a learning experience, because I’m not very experienced myself. I am teaching as I go, explaining what has worked for me and that it might not work for everyone, but at least they know how to do it if they decide to try.
And that’s really all you can do, Deb. That’s kind of the point being this blog. I’m not an expert and I don’t want to come off like that. But I love the idea of teaching things while the lesson is still fresh in my mind… because I just went through it.
It makes the blog more of a real time experience rather than a lesson from someone who is out of touch with the real struggles of trying to make it online. Just like with any time period of our lives, we remember certain parts and other parts are never thought of again. The only way to capture everything is to document it real-time.
Thanks a lot for reading.
Sean
Thanks Sean,
You are dead on with this post. I made these mistakes when I first started.
I thought it was about connecting with the big guys right from the start. So I commented on their blogs, even wrote a few guest posts, but didn’t really see much success.
It wasn’t until I started making relationships with the guys and girls that were actively out there looking for relationships, leaving comments, tweeting others works, that I started to pick up momentum.
Idolizing the big wigs is great when you reach a certain level, like you said. But jump in too early and you look like a little puppy saying, “pet me! pet me!”
It’s cute but no one will take you seriously.
Bryce
Thanks for reading, Bryce.
I took me a little while to realize this but I’m glad that I understand it now. My archives aren’t that deep on here so it’s not hard to see that just a few months ago I was all about the big wigs. Again, don’t get me wrong. Those guys are great teachers. But I found myself with a blog that was set up for maximum traffic, even though it had none. It just didn’t make sense.
I had to rethink things and kind of dull my blog down to better serve its purpose. This meant removing a lot of ads and really branding myself and my message rather than trying to make money. That’s a hard switch for a new blogger to make because… well… we want to make money!
So it took a lot of mental strength and dedication to commit to the process. And I could only learn to build that strength through the guys who teach about life in general… not just blogging. Now that I understand these things, the value that I see in the experts is a lot more focused on individual tasks rather than across the board.
Anyway, I’m rambling! Thanks a lot for reading. Also, thanks for commenting, which made me read the post again and see all of my mistakes that I missed the first time!
Sean
Hi Sean
Just came across your blog from a comment of yours on Think Traffic. I’m a new blogger and I love this post – the sentence ‘ I’ve found that I get more help from encouragement than I do from lesson plans’ really resonated with me as I’m working on my own following Corbett Barrs course build a blog that matters course. I’ve been keeping my blog ‘hidden’ up till now as I try to get some content there and now I really have to start and get some traffic – scary stuff for someone like me who is quite private. I will return and read more Sean – thanks.
Thanks a lot for reading and commenting, Libby!
First of all, I have to say that your blog is beautiful. I wouldn’t hide it from anyone! The visual appeal alone will keep people around.
I’m excited to meet someone in Corbett’s program. It’s funny that his site brought you to this post because he is part of the reason why I feel this way. His teachings and advice from CorbettBarr.com do so much more for me than constantly reading about how to blog.
You only need to read that stuff so much before it’s time to take action. He keeps me taking action continuously with pure motivation.
So, I definitely appreciate you stopping by and I hope you leave more comments in the future!
Hi Sean, wow. This is my first time visiting your blog and I really like the updated and fresh perspective you give. I have been following all the big blogs for the past few months just learning the ropes but there is always something missing and I think you are filling in the gaps.
Thanks a lot! Like you, I felt like something was missing as well. We are all at different levels in the game and we need to consume information that pushes us to the next level… not information for levels that we can’t even understand. I’m glad you find my blog useful. Don’t hesitate to subscribe.
Pat Flynn promotes article spinning software and is endorsed by Darren Rowse who knows this. Is this good advice? Hell NO.
There’s no doubt these guys make money but if you think they are really interested in helping you make money more than they are interested in making money from you then you are wrong, in my opinion.
Work out what you really love doing and what you’re really good at and help people who are also interested in what you do but need your help.
Provide them the solution which helps them solve the problem they need help with and test different ways to make money from your solutions.
Thanks for reading, Brad. I don’t know much about what those guys do behind the scenes. I’ve seen your work, though, so I’m sure you have reason to feel the way you feel.
I have never considered article spinning and never will. It doesn’t even seem the least bit right to me. I agree with you… helping people solve problems is where it’s at.